Hawaiʻi Craftsmen Annual Exhibition

Ruben’s Above and Below was selected for Hawaiʻi Craftsmen’s Annual Statewide Exhibition — Hawaiʻi’s premier statewide juried craft exhibition, presented annually since 1967. This year’s exhibition was juried by Jonathan Yukio Clark, Director of Schaefer International Gallery at Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and is on view at Downtown Art Center through September 25 before the exhibition continues to Maui this fall.

Above and Below is a 24 × 24-inch mixed-media sculptural relief born from Ruben’s fascination with the horizon — not simply as a line between sea and sky, but as a place where opposing forces meet and create something entirely new.

Living at the ocean’s edge changed the way he understood that idea. Wind, rain, moon and sun act from above; currents and unseen forces rise from below. Between them exists the surface — constantly shaped, never still. Ruben came to see that space as a metaphor for us: formed by forces we cannot always see, yet finding balance in the middle.

The work carries that philosophy into form — layers, movement and carved depth revealing what lies above, below, and between.

Mixed Media · 24 × 24 in.